As I wrote a year ago, I changed adhesive technology for locking barrel knots. I switched from using "Hard-As-Nails" clear fingernail polish to Gorilla-brand Super Glue. I did this to get a faster cure time with way less outgassing.

My experience with the Gorilla Super Glue has been great. It dries fast with no discernible odor. And so far - knock wood - I have not heard of rosaries/malas coming undone.

Over the last year, I’ve learned to be sparing with the super glue and to work it into the knots with a toothpick or some other small pointed tool. I discovered that If I just put a big dollop of the glue on the knot - it would invariably dry cloudy white - ugly.. uck…

What I find is that by working the glue into the knot, the glue gets deeper inside the knotting cord fibers and when the glue dries - it dries clear. The resulting knot will be darker and shinier than the unglued knots, but there is nothing to be done about that - unless you want to glue *all* the knots on your rosary / mala - something that is both time consuming and completely unnecessary.

Happy Mala/Rosary Making!

~

Whatever merit there may be in this work, may it benefit all beings without exception, until allhave attained awakening.

I’ve had this mala for many years. It came to me strung on nylon-coated, braided steel wire - tough stuff with excellent drape. Over time and with use - the wire stretched a bit - possibly because - as the Softflex company says - the braids inside the wire simply pulled tight from the weight of the piece and have made the wire longer..

The resulting gaps between beads were not comfortable to deal with. I always had the thought in my mind that my fingers would be garroted by the fine wire.

Yesterday I took the plunge - snipped the wire and restrung the mala with 1.5mm brown Chinese knotting cord. I secured the guru bead cap with a simple barrel knot saturated with Gorilla-brand super glue. The two tails were finished with three amber colored rondelles of animal horn. Three beads - the triple jewels - Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. The amber color evokes thoughts of the saffron colored robes of the Buddha’s disciples. Animal horn was used in keeping with the mala's Tibetan style sensibilities - everything dies - and we know not the day and time - a tiny exhortation to practice.

~

Whatever merit there may be in this work, may it benefit all beings without exception, until allhave attained awakening.

"And all I want to suggest is if American Christians say — they want to identify with that cross, they have to see the cross as a lynching. Any time your empathy, your solidarity is with the little people, you’re with the cross. If you identify with the lynchers, then, no, you can’t understand what’s happening. That in the sense of resistance— what resistance means by helpless people. Power in the powerless is not something that we are accustomed to listening to and understanding. It’s not a part of our historical experi— America always wants to think it’s gonna win everything. Well, black people have a history in which we didn’t win. We did not win. See, our resistance is a resistance against the odds. That’s why we can understand the cross.”

02/27/2015

This muted palette of white, brown, black and grey that has dominated the world these past weeks has been killing me. Finally, I decided to escape to someplace where I could see color. So - it was off to the Currier Museum in Manchester NH where they have a great exhibition of photo-realistic paintings up.

I’m not really into photo-realism per se, because I feel like the resulting image can be cold, clinical, and - once you get over the “wow it looks like a photo” feeling - boring.. Despite that, I found the exhibit to be very enjoyable especially since a number of the big pieces were of decaying metal, trash and other bits of flotsam that would normally be overlooked.. Those spoke to me.

The other really lovely thing about the Currier these days is that they allow non-flash photography throughout the museum except for a small number of pieces that are marked with a “no-photo icon.”

Her eyes are not rolled heavenward in pious rapture. She looks you square in the eye and without the slightest bit of whitewashing says:

“Here it is. Deal with it."

Her robes are a bit dingy. Her left wing is in tatters. Behind her are cold grey-blue mountains where the temperatures are thirty below at night. There are no hackneyed, Polly-Anna “God is with you” simple-syrup cliches coming from this girl’s mouth. In fact - she no longer prays at all..

She’s seen the shit.

Since the beginning of beginningless time - she’s seen the shit.

She sees the constant-ongoing-raining-down of shit every day.

She’s paid a price. Her vision has made her jaded over the eons and innumerable kalpas. Her sunny disposition faded so much that the other vain, self-serving, preening, singing, adoring crew of winged messengers want nothing to do with her…which is quite alright with her, because she’s here for us - and comes bearing the most important and most compassionate message of all: